The Years After
by Live Long and Love Books
Summary: Katniss and Peeta have been married awhile and it was perfect. Katniss and Peeta began fighting and arguing more often and one day Peeta had enough and stormed out of the house. It's been three days since Katniss has seen him. What lengths will he go through to get his relationship with Katniss back? Rated T just in case. Katniss is slightly OOC in case you couldn't tell D
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Next chapter after 2 reviews. Next chapter will be longer as well.**

He finally came back, "Well, look who's here!" Katniss said bitterly.

"Nice to see you too," Peeta replies sarcastically. " I just came to grab my stuff- I'm moving into my old house."

She looks at him to see if he's joking and there is a look of pain in her eyes. "Oh... Well I-.." She stutters and stares at him, confused, waiting for an explanation.

"I just need some more time to think, and i can't do that if I'm around you all the time," Peeta explains sadly, "You know that the hijacked memories are coming back more often now; I don`t want you to get hurt."

"But Peeta I want to help!" Tears start rolling down her face as she gets up. " I don't want to loose you like that again." She looks at him from across the room with sad eyes. She sniffs and tries to stop crying.

Peeta slowly backs away, and she can see the growing pain in his eyes as he tries to fight off a horrifficly modified memory. "Stay away," he says carefully, "I won't hurt you again." he seems to be telling himself that more than he`s telling Katniss.

Katniss looks at him frantically and starts to speak in a calm tone. "Peeta, it's okay. What's happening, we can see if it's real or not." She looks at him with a sad smile hoping to calm him down.

The pain in Peeta's eyes hardens to fear, then anger. "YOU FILTHY MUTT!," he screams at her.

She jumps back scared. "PEETA, NO!" She begins to cry and walks closer to him "Peeta! Please, please come back to me."

Peeta rushes toward Katniss.


	2. Come back

**A/N: Thanks for the positive reviews guys! Most were guest reviews, but Centura left a nice review =D . Review with any ideas and constructive criticism please. 2 reviews for the next chapter! Happy Reading!**

**Thanks to Centura and Torygirl for following and favoriting!**

***Hours later***

Peeta finds himself in the forest of District 12. He looks around confusedly, then suddenly remembers what happened. He ran as fast as his metal leg could take him back to Katniss' house. He finds the door smashed down, glass from the windowpanes on the floor and Katniss, unconscious on the cold tile of the kitchen floor. He gasps and runs away as fast as he can, back into the woods.

Katniss wakes up and looks around. She rubs her head, and as she sees the kitchen door wide open, she remembers seeing Peeta tear off into the woods before she slipped into unconsciousness. She gets up and starts running towards the woods, shouting, "PEETA?!" "PEETA, PLEASE!"

Peeta runs until he can't run anymore. He starts to sob as he falls to the forest floor, which is damp from rain. He remembers attacking Katniss then running around, looking for Gale. His hijacked self hadn't remembered that he now lived elsewhere. Soon, he drifts off, thinking of Katniss.

Katniss runs until she finds him in a small clearing. "Peeta?" She calls out softly. She hesitantly walked over and sat next to him. "Peeta, it's okay, you're okay, I'm okay." She gently lifted up his head and kissed him. "Please come back..." She whispered looking at him.

Peeta wakes up, deep in the forest with Katniss holding him. For a second, he enjoys how he feels whole again. Then, his body tenses, and he pulls away from Katniss with worry in his eyes. "How badly did I hurt you? Don't lie to me, because you are a terrible liar."

"Peeta I'm fine really," she pauses trying to think of the next part of her lie "Peeta it's okay. Really it is." She gets upset and begins to cry again but is too afraid to come up to him.

"It's not though. This cannot go on any longer. I won't let it," Peeta stands and keeps his distance from Katniss. "I will go to the Capitol and have them fix what they did to me. Until then, I'm going to live on my own so I don't hurt anyone. Especially you."

"Peeta, please, we can do real or not real, we can talk through it..." She tries to talk but she continues to cry, "I can't have you leave, please, I can't. I won't be able to do anything." She gets frustrated with everything. "I'm going to make it better!" She walks up to him and kisses him again. She pulls away slightly, preparing for the aftermath.

Peeta steps backward, away from Katniss. "This has to be done. The Capitol doctors that did this to me will be able to reverse it. I'll come back to you, as soon as it's safe. I promise." With that, he turned around and started walking towards District 12

"I won't let you!" She runs up to him and takes his hand. She hugs and kisses him longer stopping him in the clearing.

Peeta grabs Katniss' wrists and holds her away from him. "I don't think you understand. It hurts me when I see you hurt. It's even worse when I'm the one that caused you the pain. I love you. Real, or not real?"

"Real," she says quietly. "But I do understand. I just can't let you go back. I don't trust them after what they did. Do you know how much pain I will be in when your gone?!" She looks up at him with tears rolling down her face. "Please don't leave," she says quietly choking on her tears.

"Things are different now. We have a new government with a good leader. I'll be okay. I'll miss you more than anything in the world." Peeta appears to think for a moment. "Maybe while i'm gone, you can take a train to visit Gale, your mother, or Annie."

"Peeta, I can't let you leave. I promised myself in thirteen that I would never let the Capitol have you again." Her face grows solem and upset with pain.

"What else can I do?! This," he gestures to him self and Katniss, "cannot go on! What do you suggest we do?" Peeta gets more and more frustrated at himself as he keeps talking. "I can't keep hurting you like this! I couldn't live with myself if I hurt you again." His voice cracks.

Katniss looks at him, getting more and more upset as he does. Right before he starts talking again, she gently takes his face in her hands and kisses him gently. She rests her head on his chest. "Calm down," she said in a soothing, quiet tone.

"I'm so sorry," he whispers in her ear, stroking her hair. "I'll stay with you, but the next time you get hurt because of me, i'm going." He sighs in defeat.

She smiles and wraps her arms around him. "Thank you. Can we go home?" She asks quietly, taking his hand.

"Let's go home," he says sadly, confirming her request. "I believe we have a lot of cleaning up to do after what happened earlier." Peeta squeezes her hand and starts walking in the direction of District 12.

"Peeta, I think since you stopped asking real or not real all of that built up, and that's what happened..." She said thoughtfully while walking back with Peeta.

"I don't know. Maybe you're right," Peeta smiles at her as they walk quietly through the forest. "You usually are. How about we start again?" Peeta stops and focuses on something intently. "Before The Quarter Quell, you kissed Gale. Real, or not real?"

Her stomach drops and pang of guilt hits her. She swallows and answers quietly, " Real.."

Peeta stares at the sky for a minute. Then, he says, "Hmmmmm. Well, I couldn't really blame you, could I? If i wasn't into girls, he would be the subject of my fantasies too. Right along with Finnick" He smiles at Katniss and resumes walking.

She tries to hide her laugh as they walk. She is practically giggles the whole way back.

When the couple reaches District 12 again, it is starting to get dark and cold. Peeta turns to Katniss and kisses her with surprising intensity. "You know I love you more than anything, right?"

She tenses up then relaxes. When Peeta pulls away, she smiles. "Yes, I love you too." She kisses him on the cheek as her cheeks turn rosy from the cold

Katniss and Peeta reach their home and start cleaning up all the broken glass after Peeta puts fresh bread into the oven so it will be ready for their dinner later. Kaniss cleans up the blood and glass in the kitchen, then goes into the front room to find Peeta staring at the shattered door, which is hanging on one hinge. He hears her come in and turns to her whispering, "Did I really do that?"

She takes his hand and holds it tight. "Yeah, it was one of the worst times you've done this." She rubs his back a little. " It's okay, it's over."

Peeta turns to her, saying, "Where on Earth do you think we'll be able to get a new door before the train from District 7 arrives with the lumber next week?" The oven dings with the promise of freshly baked bread, and Peeta walks into the kitchen shaking his head.


	3. Leaving

**A/N: Thanks for the positive reviews! I'm glad you guise like it so much! As always, 2 reviews for the next chapter!**

They eat dinner and clean up, after that it is very late. Katniss yawns and could barely keep her eyes open cleaning up dinner.

"Go to bed Katniss. I'll finish clearing everything. You've had a long day." Peeta says.

She gets up and takes wobbly steps to the stairs and ends up sitting on the third stair waiting for Peeta. "I can wait for you," she said in a delirious tone while yawning.

Peeta snorts with laughter, "You just want me to carry you upstairs because you're too lazy to walk," he says jokingly. He finishes putting everything away and picks the now sleeping Katniss up off the stairs. He then brings her to bed and lays next to her, looking up at the ceiling.

After about an hour, she becomes restless and starts mumbling in her sleep. She begins breathing very heavy, then she starts to cry and scream and thrash around from nightmares.

Peeta, who is still awake, wakes her up. "What's wrong?" he asks with concern in his eyes and voice. "You were having a nightmare."

She is still breathing heavily and she looks at him. "Oh thank god you're okay!" she wraps her arms around him and just rests her head on his chest sniffling.

His forehead tightens in almost unnoticeable confusion. She was having a nightmare about him being hurt? Peeta was stunned. He strokes Katniss' hair and asks quietly, "What happened in your nightmare? Maybe if you tell me, it won't happen again."

She calms down a little "I was trying to save you, but I would run to you and you would just get farther away and then, Cato came with the sword then-," she burst out crying and buried her face in his shirt.

"Shh, shhh. It's okay. We're okay," he says as he tries to coax her out of his shirt. "Cato is dead. There's no more Huger Games. There is no one left who wants to hurt us."

Her breathing slows down eventually, and she looks up and hugs him. "Thank you."

Peeta smiled at her, then said, "Why, Mrs. Mellark, what are husbands for?" Katniss smiles and Peeta holds her until she's asleep. When she is asleep, he slips out of their bed, and places a handwritten note in his place. The note reads;

_My dearest Katniss,_

_I'm so very sorry for leaving in the middle of the night like this. I know you wouldn't let me go otherwise, and I can't stand to hurt you more than I have already. In all fairness, you did this to me as well in the 74th. I miss you and I love you very much_

_~Love, Peeta_

_P.S. You really are an awful liar. I saw the bruises, and the cuts, and the blood._

By morning, Peeta had already gotten on his final train; District 1 to the Capitol. He had briefly visited Gale and Katniss' mother in their respective districts to tell them what had happened and to beg them not to tell her exactly where he was going, should she come knocking. Both had agreed to help him. On the final train, he thought about Katniss as the sun rose, how she would find his note, and hopefully, she would understand that doing this; leaving her, was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Katniss wakes up the next morning an reaches her hand out to the other side of the bed hoping for Peeta's warm arm but instead, she finds a small folded piece of paper. She reads it three times and starts to look around the house for Peeta. She stops in the middle of the hallway with the note in hand and falls to the floor, crying, realizing what Peeta did.


	4. Waking Up

**A/N: Really sorry for being so late with this chapter! School break ended, and of course, we were bombed with midterms and homework. I know this is short, i'll try to post a longer one soon. 2 reviews for the next chapter please? I love y'all! If there's any specific characters or events you would like to happen, let me know!**

**~Live Long and Love Books**

Katniss is able to get up after darkness falls. She had lain on the floor all day, paralyzed. She stands with difficulty, leaning into the wall to help her balance. She stumbles down the hallway, and down the stairs. She gets outside, and the biting cold clears her head. She runs over to Haymitch's house and bursts in, knowing he's passed out drunk anyways. She wakes him by dumping one of his many bottles of liquor over his head.

"Whasshappinin'," he slurs, swinging his knife blindly.

Katniss ducks under his arm and grabs him by the front of his shirt. "I need you to sober up _now_. Peeta's gone and you need to help me find him."

Haymitch looks at her taken aback by the obvious pain and fire in her eyes. "Okay sweetheart. Lemme go and i'll see if I can help."

Katniss releases his shirt and sinks into a chair behind her. "He left this," she shows him Peeta's note, "He went to the Capitol. To have them fix what they did to him." Her voice cracks and she draws her knees to her chest. She sobs, but there are no more tears left to shed. "I know I should trust them, because they're good now, but I- I just can't. Not after what they did."

Haymitch sighs, "I'm assuming this was after one of his... incidents. Right?" He sees Katniss nod slightly. "That bad, huh?" She nods again, smaller than before. "Well, there's good doctors in your mother's new district, and we can see if Gale knows anything. He's in good with the new Capitol, if anything major like... that is going to happen, he'll know. The first train to District 11 leaves around noon tomorrow. Until then, try to get some rest sweetheart." He smiles wanly at her and hands back the note.

She nods numbly and gets up, the note clutched in her hand. He walks back to her's and Peeta's house. _Great_, she thought_, not only is Peeta gone, but I have to see both my mother and Gale to get him back. _She walked upstairs and crawled into the bed. She missed Peeta's warm embrace, him holding her as she slept, and her holding him in return. She slept, suffering from the worst nightmares she had ever had. As she slept, she dreamed that Snow was alive. She dreamed of blood spattering the tiles, a limp Peeta, and screaming. Her dream blacked out, but there was still screaming. Loud, painful screams, the kind that could only be conjured from torture.


	5. Why did you go?

**A/N: Hey guise! I'm sorry for posting erratically with weeks in between, but from now on, I will try my hardest to post once a week. I actually did write a new chapter to post but it got deleted. T.T. And if you would like, check out my YouTube which is**

** user/aubreeeeeeeyyyyyyt19****and my Instagram /lovinthembooks19****. Two reviews for the next chapter?**

**~Live Long and Love Books**

* * *

Katniss wakes up drenched in sweat, shaking, and screaming her head off. She takes a moment to calm down and stop screeching, but she can't stop shaking, no matter how hard she tried. She looks over at the clock. It's 6:55 in the morning. She realizes she still has almost 5 hours until the train comes to take her around to all the districts and groans. Katniss decides against going back to sleep, lest she has another horrid nightmare. She'd had nightmares before, but Peeta had always been there to comfort her. A lump rose in her throat. She got up from the bed and went into the bathroom to take a shower. While undressing, she looked in the mirror and noticed her eyes were still quite red from crying. She shook her head and took a shower. After dressing in a pair of artfully ripped black skinny jeans and a blue v-neck tee shirt, she heads downstairs to eat. She manages to choke down a few leftover cheese buns that Peeta had made for her, then looks at the clock. It's only 8:05. She decides that it would be a good time to wake up Haymitch, and walks over to his house to do so.

She silently opens the unlocked door and flips on the kitchen lights. Haymitch isn't in the kitchen, so she ventures down the hallway to the dining room and living room. She sees him on the floor in the living room, a bottle in hand, of course. She walks into his kitchen again and fills a kettle with cold water. She walks ino his living room again and sets down the kettle. Katniss checks that he isn't holding a knife before dumping the entire kettle on his head.

"Phhhhtttt," he sputters at the rush of icy water, "Why do you insist on waking me up like that? Peeta always..." He trails off, remembering what happened.

"It's the most efficient way to get what I need. And yes, I know Peeta was kinder," she sighs, " Anyways, you need to get up and get ready. It's already," she looks at the clock briefly, "8:30."

Haymitch scowls at her. "You couldn't just wake me up at ten or something?"

Katniss scowls back. "We will not miss the train. I'm going hunting. By the time I get back, you better be ready to leave." She turns and stalks out of the house, leaving Haymitch glaring after her. She barely makes it to the woods before she breaks down.

She sinks to her knees with a sob. She really wished Peeta were there with her. "Peeta," she whispers, "Why did you leave me?"


	6. Here & On our way

A/N: Hey! I'm so sorry this is three weeks late, i know. Laptop was confiscated :( . i hope you guise like it! Anyways, review and let me know what you think and anything that you would like to see happen, maybe. Also, feel free to PM me any questions, or just put them in the reviews.

~Live Long and Love Books, that's the motto

* * *

Peeta woke up in his train car, the sun shining brightly through the window. He was happy for a fleeting moment before he realized he was in the Capitol by now, without Katniss and alone. He quickly exited the train and went to the hospital. Once there, he was received at the reception desk where he was told where to locate the doctor he was seeing.

Walking the halls, he realized that there was almost no one in the hospital. _It makes sense_, he _thought, the rebellion ended almost 12 years ago, there's no more cause for serious injuries, really._

After locating the correct office and knocking lightly on the door, and entered. He greeted the young, white-dressed doctor that introduced himself as Dr. Damian (A/N; I'm really bad at making up names; don't hate me). Peeta sat down nervously, while Dr. Damian droned on about something he didn't care about. Finally, he asked the winning question; What are you here for?

Peeta sighed and explained. "During the rebellion, my mind was "hijacked". They showed me my own memories, but injected me with amounts of tracker-jacker venom, so they would be warped and twisted."

The doctor frowns. "The rebellion ended many years ago, and if that is true, you should still be in an awful mental state, or dead."

"The people i love tried hard to get me back. They helped me get my memories back to their original state." he replied

"If you are repaired so to speak, then what can we help you with?" Dr. Damian asks confusedly.

"I still suffer from mental attacks, that have been more frequent the last few months. My brain is seized by the tainted memories and it often results in my friends and family being injured or turned against me," Peeta explains, "I was hoping there was something to be done to stop this from happening again. Ever."

* * *

**Katniss**

After collecting myself, I walk further into the woods. I aim to shoot a squirrel but miss, just skimming the tail. I'm much too tense to hunt today, so I resolve to check all my snares, finding a few rabbits. I head slowly back to the village, not rushing, but trying to relax. I trade the rabbits for some bread. It's nowhere near as good as Peeta's though. I head back to check on Haymitch, who, big surprise, is asleep at his table. I look at the clock, and it's already eleven. My eyes widen.

"Up, Haymitch! WAKE UP!" I screech. He groans and looks up at me. "The train comes in an hour!"

He rouses himself and staggers around, looking for something, liquor I assume. I hand him a bottle near my feet. I slice up the rest of the bread and make him eat that and a rabbit. By then, it's time for us to get on our train to my mother's District. We hop on the train as soon as allowed. We're the only ones, for obvious reasons. The train starts to move and I go explore, too high-strung to do anything else.


	7. Sorry!

PLEASE READ: IMPORTANT!

* * *

Hey guise! I'm really sorry, but unfortunately, i am offically putting this story on hiatus. I may start another story or just take the time to relax. I can promise you though, when i restart the story there will be an amazing chapter, not a filler like the last few. Again, i'm so sorry, but there may be a new story to come out of it. Love y'all!

~Live Long and Love Books 3


End file.
